Lady Mondegreen

[Dan Goodman]

Date:    Sun, 12 Sep 2004 15:56:33 -0400
From:    Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM>
Subject: Re: Lady Mondegreen

She was a three-times stakes winner.

I think the term became widespread outside of the linguistic community with
Jimmy Hendrix and "kiss this guy"/"kiss the sky."  Almost elevated to
parlour game status.
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990811

I really don't think the linguistic community can claim this term.   It
was well-known in the folk music community some time ago.   I suspect
that linguists got it from folkies, as science fiction fandom probably did.

For the origin, see this:

 From http://www.plexoft.com/SBF/M04.html
mondegreen
     A misheard lyric. The term was coined by Sylvia Wright in a
November 1954 Harper's Magazine article (that'd be vol. 209, no. 1254,
pp. 48-51) entitled ``The Death of Lady Mondegreen.'' She explained that
when she was a child, her mother would read to her from Percy's
Reliques, and one of her favorite poems was the one she remembered beginning

         Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands
         Or, where hae ye been?
         They hae slain the Earl Amurray,
         And Lady Mondegreen.

----- Original Message -----
From: "George Thompson" <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2004 3:37 PM
Subject: Lady Mondegreen



 >> A filly ran at Belmont on Saturday who was the daughter of "Lady

Mondegreen" -- I didn't realize that this was such a widely known term, or
does one of us keep a racing stable?  I invested $5 on the daughter, having
no better thoughts, and she finished up the track.  The racing career of the
mommy, if she had one, escaped my attention.

 >>
 >>

--
Dan Goodman
Journal http://www.livejournal.com/users/dsgood/ or
http://dsgood.blogspot.com
All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
John Arbuthnot (1667-1735), Scottish writer, physician.